Argentina still ‘owes’ UK dictator debt for Falklands arms

Eurodad member Jubilee Debt Campaign has uncovered documents which show that Argentina still owes debts to the UK government based on arms sales to the Argentine junta in the years leading up to the Falklands War.

The archives, which include a letter from then Foreign Secretary David Owen, show the British government keenly aware of the odious nature of the Argentina regime - describing it as ‘worse’ than Pinochet’s Chile - and that conflict over the Falkland Islands was possible. However, Owen states that “complete consistency in our approach” towards Argentina was not possible.

Argentina’s £45 million restructured debt includes loans for two Type 42 Destroyers and two Lynx helicopter which were used in the invasion of the Falklands.

The debt overhang left by Argentina’s military junta was not cancelled, despite a court case in 2000 finding that loans to Argentina under the dictatorship were part of "a damaging economic policy that forced on its knees through various methods ... and which tended to benefit and support private companies - national and foreign - to the detriment of society". These loans ultimately helped fuel Argentina’s economic crisis in the early 2000s.

Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign said: "Lending the military junta money to buy British weapons was illegitimate and odious. The newly uncovered documents show that then Foreign Secretary David Owen knew the UK government was lending money for arms to an abhorrent regime. The Liberal Democrats must stick to their pledge to rule invalid loans recklessly given to dictators".

"This is not the only occasion in which debt has been run up supplying arms to a regime which British soldiers would soon be fighting. The anniversary of the Falklands War should force the government to question the way it does business. Business Minister Vince Cable must implement Liberal Democrat policy and stop subsidising war through the backing of loans to other governments to buy weapons."

A briefing on Argentina's debt to the UK and the arms sales is available here.